Bad Elf
by Nocturnal Muse
Summary: Forever, people have wondered how Santa gets all the presents to all the kids in one night. Every year, Koenma sends a fast youkai to help him out. This year, a youkai who’s on the naughty list gets to help out, and he might find there’s more to Christm


Bad Elf

Summary: Forever, people have wondered how Santa gets all the presents to all the kids in one night. Every year, Koenma sends a fast youkai to help him out. This year, a youkai who's on the naughty list gets to help out, and he might find there's more to Christmas than he gave credit for. One Shot.

HD: Ok, this was an idea I've had for a few years, but I got in the Christmas spirit, I guess, and came up with a way to do it. Call me weird, call me mean, but I saw a picture that gave me inspiration. Don't know where it is, though… So, in other words, for those who care, the time frame is after Tarukane and before the Ankyoukyou (Dark Tournament) have fun and review!

"What?" Hiei exclaimed. He had stood up sharply to his full height (not very tall, might I add) and his flaming eyes bored angrily down at the toddler in charge of the ningen after life.

"Community service. It'll help get you off for that stunt you pulled. It's better than what I had to go through," Koenma replied.

"I'd have to dress like some fat ningen fantasy and go around giving baka little ningen things. All in one night?"

"They're called presents. And you don't have to dress like Santa Clause either. You're just the right height to be an elf."

"No. That's it. I'm not doing anything. Make Kurama do it. He likes ningen." Hiei turned and walked to the door when Koenma came up with, "Yukina would like it."

Hiei froze in mid step. He turned to glare at the toddler, harsher than before. "Fine. So what do I have to do?"

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Hiei stood on the roof of the first house, outlined by the moon, his jagged hair oddly contrasting to the rest of his features. He was wearing a red shirt with green cuffs and dark green pants that were several shades short of black. By his foot, a small bag lay crumpled. He was used to the kind of bag –most youkai thieves were- since it would stay the same size, and you could put anything in there to pull out later. The best part was, it didn't weigh a thing.

It was stupid, all of it. Everywhere, ningen had been preparing for a holiday for at least a month; going everywhere, desperately trying to find a gift for their special someone, hanging up lights (admittedly, that had been pretty funny sometimes) and bringing trees inside to decorate (not even the good trees to sit in). It seemed so stupid; Hiei hadn't even wanted Kurama to explain it to him.

Hiei turned, grabbing the bag and hopping into the chimney of the house. Once in the room, he put several small things –mostly candy- into the furry red and white stockings that hung by the fireplace. Then, Hiei set a few larger packages by a richly decorated fir tree. He turned to leave when something Koenma had said surfaced in his mind. "At least try the cookies. If you don't like them, take them with."

He looked around for what ever a cookie might be, and saw something on a plate with a small letter next to it spelling out the words _For Santa _in a sloppy shaky writing. By the card, was a plastic plate with a fat man dressed like a stocking and smiling, holding a little present in his green-gloved hand painted onto it. On the plate were three chocolate chip cookies. Reluctantly, Hiei picked up a cookie and bit it. He chewed momentarily and swallowed. A slight smile tugged at the fire youkai's lips. "Nice," he muttered. He took the other two cookies and ate them quickly. Hiei downed the milk, even though it tasted horrible, as Koenma said. (Go for the Coke-a-cola!)

Then, he popped out of the chimney and on to the next house.

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A few houses later, Hiei was munching on a Santa shaped sugar cookie when a little boy who looked eight walked into the room. He was smirking. "I told my friends Santa existed," he chuckled. In a flash, Hiei ran behind the kid and knocked him out. Opps, bad instincts. He took the kid back into his room. Hopefully, he'd think he fell asleep while waiting for that Santa fellow. After that, Hiei left the house, hoping nothing like that would happen again.

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Hundreds of houses and billions of various cookies later, Hiei was looking at a bird ornament on a tree when there was a noise behind him. He pocketed the bird as he tuned to see a young girl with pale blonde hair who looked oddly like… "Yukina," Hiei whispered inaudibly.

"Are you the real Santa?" the girl asked quietly.

"No," Hiei bit out. The girl looked like she was going to cry. He didn't want that, so he tried to cover it up. "You know how busy Santa is. I'm one of his elves."

The girl brightened instantly. "An elf?"

"Yeah."

"Well, Mr. Elf, how does your hair stand up like that?"

"Christmas magic. I like the way it feels, so Santa helps me out with my hair." Big lie. The fire youkai didn't know why he told it, nor did he care. He started feeling guilty about taking the bird. Baka ningen. He held out the bird ornament to the girl. "Here, it fell off the tree."

"You can have it."

"Thank you."

"Mr. Elf? Can you ask Santa to make it snow for me? I love snow."

"Sure kid," Hiei disappeared after saying that.

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"Koenma-sama, what did you do?" Kurama asked. His long red hair was covered slightly by a red and white Christmas hat, while his green eyes helped convey the holiday spirit. His typical attire was colored with numerous shades of reds and greens, with hues of white here and there.

"Why? Have there been reports of mass murders?"

"No. Hiei just came back. He was smiling."

"What?" Koenma exclaimed.

Just then, Hiei walked into the room. "I need something sent to Makai."

"Why?"

"After all I did for you tonight, can't you do one simple task for me?"

"All right, what is it?"

Hiei threw a nicely wrapped, tiny parcel onto Koenma's cluttered desk. It even had a nice red bow crisscrossing the vibrant green paper. Inside was the bird ornament the girl had given him.

"For Yukina?" Kurama asked.

"Yeah, for Yukina," Hiei muttered, walking over to the window. He stared out, thinking he might help Santa out so the rumors about "he knows if you've been bad or good" would be true, then decided against it. What would the other self-respecting youkai say?

A white snowflake drifted down in front of Hiei's face. As soon as he looked at it, the flake melted.

"Kurama, I think you're finally loosing it," Koenma muttered.

Kurama ignored the toddler, still watching Hiei. Koenma's attention was on Kurama, so he didn't see the fire youkai's slight smile as he thought of the girl whose wish had come true.

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HD: Ah, yeah, there we go. It won't change the rest of the year; he'll still be grumpy as usual. But, that was a quick one shot. R&R


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